Top positive review

5.0 out of 5 starsThe setup process is exceptionally easy and the cameras work great for what they are

April 28, 2018

I purchased 6 of these cameras to set up around my home. The setup process is exceptionally easy and the cameras work great for what they are....a truly wireless option that will capture motion activated activity, works over your home WIFI connection and does not suck you into a subscription service. You don't want to use these in a heavy traffic area (they'd likely drain the battery pretty quickly), but for an easy monitoring DIY option, these are great. The only real negatives I would point out are 1. The volume on the camera when speaking is pretty weak and not adjustable 2. There is no setup option using your computer which makes it a bit of a pain when doing multiple cameras 3. The outdoor mounts are made of plastic so not sure how long they'll hold up.

Top critical review

Very disappointed with the Reolink Argus 2, I have the first version, but it has terrible battery life. The Argus 2 with the solar panel, I was hoping I wouldn't continue with the problem, but now I have a new problem, it's always offine remotely. When I'm connected in the same wifi network it works great, but when I try to access remotely I get "connection failed" and "device is offline..." I have tested the wifi connection and it is fine, even place it right next to the router. I also did the port forwarding on the router, yet that did not work. Also made sure battery is charged. I finally did a hard reset on the camera and went thru the setup and it worked. But then a few days later I have the same issues. So, it works fine when my phones (verizon, att, and sprint networks) are connected to the same wifi network, but when I try to remotely connect (which is the whole point) it does not. I tested my network connections, I also have a reolink C1 and that camera remotely connects fine, on all my phones. I have updated to the latest firmware, and the routers, and the reolink desktop client. Yet the C1 connects from beyond my house fine, and the Argus 2 does not. Plus the Reolink support page for the Argus 2 is lacking.

Update: I might have found a solution, but I need to continue testing. If you change the quality setting from 1080p to 720p it may work remotely. Hopefully this continues to work, but its weird that the camera while being connected to the strong WiFi signal, and 4 bars of 4g cannot handle 1080p while my C1 can handle 2560*1440 resolution with no problems. I will pick up my rating to 2 stars, and see how it continues to function.Update 2:Failed, the argus 2 with the latest updates will not connect remotely again. The Reolink Argus 2 will not connect remotely but locally it will (I'm not the only one with the problem), Reolink Argus 1 batteries go bad after a week, even with the modified settings, and the Reolink C1 has poor video quality, had to bring downthe settings to fluent. I would not recommend buying Reolink products, I been burn 3 times already, since it was a good idea I went for it. But with all the issues, its not worth it. I'm never trusting Reolink products.

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Very disappointed with the Reolink Argus 2, I have the first version, but it has terrible battery life. The Argus 2 with the solar panel, I was hoping I wouldn't continue with the problem, but now I have a new problem, it's always offine remotely. When I'm connected in the same wifi network it works great, but when I try to access remotely I get "connection failed" and "device is offline..." I have tested the wifi connection and it is fine, even place it right next to the router. I also did the port forwarding on the router, yet that did not work. Also made sure battery is charged. I finally did a hard reset on the camera and went thru the setup and it worked. But then a few days later I have the same issues. So, it works fine when my phones (verizon, att, and sprint networks) are connected to the same wifi network, but when I try to remotely connect (which is the whole point) it does not. I tested my network connections, I also have a reolink C1 and that camera remotely connects fine, on all my phones. I have updated to the latest firmware, and the routers, and the reolink desktop client. Yet the C1 connects from beyond my house fine, and the Argus 2 does not. Plus the Reolink support page for the Argus 2 is lacking.

Update: I might have found a solution, but I need to continue testing. If you change the quality setting from 1080p to 720p it may work remotely. Hopefully this continues to work, but its weird that the camera while being connected to the strong WiFi signal, and 4 bars of 4g cannot handle 1080p while my C1 can handle 2560*1440 resolution with no problems. I will pick up my rating to 2 stars, and see how it continues to function.Update 2:Failed, the argus 2 with the latest updates will not connect remotely again. The Reolink Argus 2 will not connect remotely but locally it will (I'm not the only one with the problem), Reolink Argus 1 batteries go bad after a week, even with the modified settings, and the Reolink C1 has poor video quality, had to bring downthe settings to fluent. I would not recommend buying Reolink products, I been burn 3 times already, since it was a good idea I went for it. But with all the issues, its not worth it. I'm never trusting Reolink products.

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I purchased 6 of these cameras to set up around my home. The setup process is exceptionally easy and the cameras work great for what they are....a truly wireless option that will capture motion activated activity, works over your home WIFI connection and does not suck you into a subscription service. You don't want to use these in a heavy traffic area (they'd likely drain the battery pretty quickly), but for an easy monitoring DIY option, these are great. The only real negatives I would point out are 1. The volume on the camera when speaking is pretty weak and not adjustable 2. There is no setup option using your computer which makes it a bit of a pain when doing multiple cameras 3. The outdoor mounts are made of plastic so not sure how long they'll hold up.

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Had it for a few weeks now... noticed that motion detection really depends on the amount of sunlight that is in view of the cameras site-line... I bought the $29 Solar Panel and check the camera remotely several times a day, and the battery stays charged. (Used it the first day without the solar panel and the battery drained quickly.) So, I really recommend the Solar Panel. It is what it is, and it’s not a high end security system, but it doesn’t cost what a high end security system does. I am going to buy another one of these cameras and another solar panel for the back of my property. Ultimately, if you want an inexpensive, truely wireless way to keep an eye on your property (using WiFi and Solar) I recommend this camera, bundled with the solar panel.

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Does everything it says it does. No issues so far other than a lot of false positives due to only 3 sensitivity settings. Running it on the solar panel on the front porch. It stays at 100% power. Not paying for cloud service was the biggest reason for getting this over others. I've had it about 3 months and have only used about 4 Gb of storage. I'm using a 64 Gb micro sd card which now I realize is way too big. You probably dont need to look back on recordings from several months ago. You can download a recording to your phone if you want keep it. I get a notification from the phone app and an email with a screenshot every time the motion sensor is activated. At that time I can click the app and view the live feed local or remote as long you have a data connection.

Update: 24 JAN 2019Been using about 9 months. Still mostly positive experience. A few things to note: Wifi range/reception is not great and is 2.4 Ghz only. I will be upgrading to a Google Wifi mesh system with an access point closer to the Reolink camera. I am still able to view a live feed of my front porch from anywhere in the world. Have only used 7 out of 64 Gb on the microSD card. My video settings are set to "fluid" (360p-ish) instead of "1080p" due to the low signal strength.

So the biggest issue to far as been the latency to start the recording when the motion trigger is activated. Its a second or 2. Often times I will not be able to see the persons face as they walk up to my porch. My look angles may not be ideal. I bought 2 more. One for my back porch and one to use as an interior dog/baby monitor that could also be repurposed later on. So I will update in a few months after I finish my Wifi upgrade.

The picture is my front porch setup. Night time with the front porch light on. It is mounted from a horizontal wood beam on the porch ceiling.

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If this camera had free cloud storage and long lasting batteries like the Blink XT it would easily be the best and it still is due to some cool features but it is not by a lot.

I will be reviewing the Reolink Argus 2 and then comparing it to the Blink XT (another battery operated camera that is owned by Amazon and if you spend more than 5 minutes of researching battery operated cameras you will see it so hopefully this will be helpful lol). Also, I bought the Ring Spotlight battery camera as well and will update this review once I compare that one for all you researchers.I got this for 20 bucks off the 130 price on Amazon, it was a lightning deal. There is no number to call this company you have to email them but so far the pros outweigh the cons.Pros:- Instant notifications. This is huge for me. For the BXT there nothing in the instructions that I saw says this and I read it from other reviewers but it only notifies you AFTER its done recording. The lowest time to record I believe is 8 seconds so that means you won’t get alerted for 1-2 seconds after that for your phone to actually receive so like 10 seconds compares to Reolink’s 1-2 seconds without the delay.- Much better at night, the Reolink has more Infrared lights and has this starlight future which makes the picture more clear in color at night and black/white feature- It does have a siren or pre-recorded alarm. Other reviewers/questions said you cannot manually trigger the siren and that its motion activated. This is one of the reasons why I bought the Ring as well because I want to trigger an alarm if needed not have it motion activated for obvious reasons like a mailman coming to the door. You can shut this feature off if you want. However, you can set a pre-recorded alarm and only have it at night like “go away, I am watching you, leave right now” something like that or you can trigger the siren which is like 2-3 seconds and not very loud but in the middle of the night with not much noise it would hopefully spook a bad person away.- It does have 2-way audio. This is mostly going to be used if you use it at your front door as “doorbell camera” I have the Nest doorbell (bought it over the Ring doorbell in case you are interested in one of those as well) For example, if you are at the grocery store or work and the delivery person is your door you can tell the person to leave it. Honestly, I don’t even use this feature because I don’t want to spook the person on the other end but its cool to have it and if you have kids im sure they would enjoy using this feature. I use it to spook my mother in law and sister in law when they come over!!- Does come with an outdoor “skin” whereas the BXT does not. As I am typing this it sounds like I am just hating on the Blink XT which is kind of true but I am trying to educate as many reviewing “friends” as I can. It has rained like 7 straight days here in New Hampshire and the camera on the BXT keeps getting fogged up/rain droplets on it and the Argus 2 has this protective lip on top of it with the case you can put on it that would solve that problem.- It does have local storage that I briefly mentioned earlier. Some people are paranoid with their videos going to their cloud. Mine is just of the back door of my house so I don’t care but your storage has to go to a memory card or you can pay for the cloud feature. It was free in beta stage up until very recently.

Cons/Comparison to Blink XT- Not long lasting batteries (Reolink and Ring both last 1-2 months compared to Blink’s 1-2 years)- In the future you have to pay for cloud storage it used to be free- Slow to open notifications especially not on WIFI- You have to look at live view before seeing the recorded clip meaning when you open the app after a motion alert you then have to click the playback button there should be a setting of which one you want.- The company is in China. When I had questions about the BXT or Ring I called them. I have seen other reviewers who are emailing the company it days and sometimes weeks since China is many hours ahead of us. I called Ring last Saturday night at like 10pm (was bored and yes researching, a favorite hobby of mine and I got a hold of nice girl…you can’t do that if you have a question with Reolink so let’s hope I don’t have any issues!

Update:*** I am going to be returning the BXT for the Reolink Argus 2 and am waiting for the Ring Spotlight battery cam but that is $200 (I called Ring and got 5% off – ALWAYS CALL PLACES TO GET COUPON CODES) so I got it for $190. The BXT and Argus 2 was 130 but got both for 110 and the Ring you have to pay $3 dollars a month of $30 dollars for the year to record with the Ring. Not sure if it’s worth it yet though!I am going to attach two similar pictures to show the differences in quality at night. The one without the time stamp at the top is the BXT.I also attached a picture showing myself on the BXT to show you that due to low quality at night (which is when I want to rely on a camera the most, most likely) you can’t make out the features in my face.*** If you found this review helpful, please click helpful so I am encouraged to keep writing updates and the other battery operated cameras I am testing : )- One final note if you are considering an indoor camera and you don’t care if its wired the Nest cam is awesome and records 24/7 non-stop so you won’t miss anything whereas most cameras including all the others I have talked about only record in motion clips.!!!!!!!Thanks for reading this all!!!!!!!

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I purchased 4 Reolink Argus 2 Cameras. They have beautiful color rendering. The App is simple to use. What I soon realized however is the PIR nature of the Camera. PIR detection is best if you position the camera in such a way that the subject crosses from side to side in front of the camera. If you walk directly straight toward the Camera or even run toward it, you will in many instances be able to go undetected! No joke. Since the Camera has an SD card, you will be able to knock the canera off or yank it down before it records. Now the interesting part. This camera comes with cloud storage. Sounds good right? Well, you might be thinking if my Camera with SD card inside is stolen or destroyed, I still have the cloud backup. Think again folks. As of this writing, cloud storage is only good for 7 seconds, even if you choose 8/15/30 seconds using the app. 7 seconds that's too short. Compare that to what the competition is offering. Some free cloud storage offered by other camera makers offer way more video time capture. To me, these cameras are best used hidden, because a knowlegable thief can recognize the Argus 2 brand and run straight toward it, knowing the probability of being video captured is low. If you own this Camera, try running directly toward it, and not across it and see how much Captured video you get. Since these cameras work best if someone walks across and not straight toward the camera, be prepared to capture a majority of side view profiles of would be intruders. After walking across from the camera which is the ideal triggering path for this type of camera, I will verify what most of the other reviewers have said. The motion detection is very weak even at its highest detection setting. I want to love these Cameras, but it's severly limited. They are beautiful to look at and hold, but are just as good as a new Ferrari without an engine.

The Bad:- Very poor outgoing audio quality (can barely hear the audio coming out of the camera compared to my cheap $20 WyzeCam)- Very bad wifi connection just outside my front door when on 1080p (10-15 feet away from router) which results in freezing and unreliable capability of video streem. When I switch the camera to lower resolution than the camera does not freeze and does not delay, but then you payed $130 for630-resolution. Yes I can buy a wifi extender but how is my $20 WyzeCam streaming just fine with HD 1080p video right next to Argus2 when doing a test?- No web viewing- Notification pop on screen rather than an icon on the top bar* Suggestion for Reolink to make a 12 sec. quick video to view as part of the notification

Result:- If the audio on the Argus2 was decent, I would have kept the camera and invest in wifi extender. Although I am not sure that the 5 seconds delays and freezing would be fixed. I will return the camera as it is unreliable at this point and does not function properly for my intended purposes. It may be a perfect indoor camera next to the router. I need a door camera that has HD quality, two-way-talk with motion detection, night vision, local storage and push notifications that all work (hope I'm not asking for too much living in the 21st century. Im willing to pay).May be next time Reolink

Update:Purchased wifi extender (did not want to give up yet) and that did not seem to help much.Yesterday the camera lost its configurations and asked to be re-paired with my phone. I do not know what happened. It did not recognized my password and it asked me to hard-reset the camera. That meant to set everything up again. I do not know if this will be something I have to do regularly.

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The Argus 2 is an incredible camera! I installed it inside our barn owl house that is located about 30 feet behind our house and about 20 feet high. It’s been in there for over 2 weeks now and last night we had our first notification of a visitor! See attached video!

Pros:- Image quality is so good, especially impressed with the Starlight night vision. I have zero light inside the owl box and it still captures perfect footage WITH AUDIO!!!- Totally wireless with optional solar panel means you can mount it practically anywhere. Battery is ALWAYS at 100%!- Records to SD card and now cloud support, perfect!

Cons:None at this time. Time will tell about its durability.

There are only a few things I would wish for in the next version of this camera:- Smaller size. It’s not big but smaller would be better.- Pan and tilt feature- Higher resolution 1440p like their C1 Pro

As you can tell, I love this camera! I would highly recommend the Reolink Argus 2 to anyone needing a remote, weatherproof camera. I just ordered another one to point behind my yard to monitor coyotes. We have a little dog and always worry about her getting attacked.